Isn't it lucky?

>>>>> On 9 Jan 1997, mbrisbane at netcom.com (Martin Brisbane) wrote:
mbrisbane> But where you say "subtle changes in various aspects of brain
mbrisbane> and behavior", I think you have a shade of meaning in mind that
mbrisbane> is at odds with our topic. Do you mean something like the way
mbrisbane> that sodium pentathol makes you talkative, and from a
mbrisbane> neuroscientist's point of view that "sure is a subtle change in
mbrisbane> function"?
Well, you didn't mention anything at all about dictators in your original
posting (though I see the implication in the very last sentence of that
article), so it's hard to guess what's at odds with your topic.
Some examples of subtle changes in behavior that I had in mind might be:
* increased alertness resulting from intake of caffeine
* reduction in pain sensitivity resulting from intake of aspirin
mbrisbane> By the way, I'm curious as to why you say there are "many" ways
mbrisbane> to do it without going through the 5 senses. Chemicals I grant
mbrisbane> you, surgery we dismissed for unsubtlety, and the only other way
mbrisbane> I can think of (TCMS) requires very prominent, powerful magnets
mbrisbane> and therefore can also be dismissed as being too unsubtle.
Some other examples:
* Very low frequency sound waves (in the range of 10-30 Hz, if I remember
correctly) that are below the threshold of human hearing can cause nausea
and other discomfort in people. Assuming such vibrations are not so
strong that a person feels them on their body, then, since they are below
the threshold of hearing, this would not be going through the 5 senses.
* It turns out people are sensitive to the amount of daylight that they
receive in a diurnal cycle. During the winter season, many people
experience depression because of the reduced amount of daylight. This is
not a good example because it relies on light sensitivity (i.e., vision),
but it's not a direct perceptual manipulation, and it effectuates a subtle
change in behavior.
I'm sure there must be others. Again, these may not be the kind of thing
you meant in your original posting.
--
Mike Hucka hucka at umich.edu <URL: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/hucka>
Ph.D. candidate, computational models of human visual processing, U-M AI Lab
UNIX admin & programmer/analyst, EECS Dept., University of Michigan